Editor's Choice

Ohio among states with steepest decline in bank branches

The number of U.S. bank branches has fallen to the lowest level since 2005, The Wall Street Journalreports, and Ohio is among the states with the steepest declines.

Branches in the United States dropped to 94,725 as of June 30, down 1,614, or 1.7%, from a year earlier and down 4,825 from the peak in 2009, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data. The branch drop “was the fifth in a row and the biggest one-year decline recorded in at least two decades” by the FDIC, The Journal notes. The reasons for the decline are pretty intuitive: “Large and small banks have been cutting back on their branches while spending more on mobile capabilities,” according to the newspaper. “Catering to changing customer behavior, banks also save money when customers transact business over their phones or laptops.” Bank branches “fell in all but a handful of states, with Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania among those showing the biggest declines,” The Journal reports. Slight gains were reported in Hawaii, Massachusetts, Montana, Rhode Island and Wyoming. Among the largest banks, Bank of America Corp. saw the biggest decline in branches, to 5,094 from 5,399, according to the FDIC data. Citigroup Inc. saw total U.S. branches fall to 958 from 1,031.

This and that

Wellness — at a price: There’s a Cleveland connection to a $50 million penthouse that’s for sale in New York.

CNBC.com runs a periodic feature called “The most expensive house (we could get into).” The latest installment, in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, is a “stunner … (that) makes sure its owners are healthy as well as wealthy,” according to the website. Marketed as "wellness real estate," the duplex is in a building “that features not only high-end finishes, but perks aimed at boosting one's health like vitamin C-infused showers, purified water, posture-support flooring and circadian lighting,” CNBC.com says. The purchase of this megahome “also grants you access to sleep, stress management and nutrition programs through the Cleveland Clinic and access to a wellness concierge.” Your neighbors, should you have $50 million to spend, would include health guru Deepak Chopra and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.Navy sees the light: Forbes.com takes an admiring look at an order Solon-based Energy Focus Inc. just closed with the U.S. Navy. The order, most of which is expected to be delivered through the rest of 2014, is entirely for Energy Focus' Intellitube LED retrofit tubes. The technology allows for direct fit into existing fluorescent sockets with or without the ballast in place. Energy Focus says it’s the largest single order in the company’s history. Loren Thompson, a Forbes.com contributor who focuses on the strategic, economic and business implications of defense spending as the chief operating officer of the nonprofit Lexington Institute, notes that Energy Focus “is the only domestic manufacturer of LED — light emitting diode — lamps that has been certified by the sea service to provide replacements of fluorescent lighting on its warships.” He writes that LED lighting “requires much less electricity and maintenance to deliver equivalent illumination, enabling the Navy to book big energy savings quickly.” In addition, Thompson notes, “A typical Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser uses 6,000 two-foot fluorescent tubes and about 500 other bulbs of varying types. Energy Focus produces a proprietary two-foot LED lamp called Intellitube that only consumes half as much electricity and — because of its long life — can cut maintenance costs by 80% or more.” He concludes, “If all the traditional lamps on a Ticonderoga were replaced with LED lighting, the estimated annual savings at ten-cents per kilowatt hour would be $564,000. Multiply that by the 22 Ticonderoga-class warships in the fleet, and the annual savings total $12,400,000 — just for switching light bulbs!”Progress: Orchestra conducting, for the most part, is a man’s world. But a woman who is making major inroads will be a guest conductor with the Cleveland Orchestra this season. Reuters profiles Susanna Malkki, 45, who was appointed by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra as its next chief conductor, starting in 2016. “She joins a small group of musicians that includes American Marin Alsop at the helm of the Baltimore Symphony and São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, and Australian Simone Young, director at the Hamburg State Opera and Philharmonic,” the news service says. Reuters notes that Malkki also holds the post of principal guest conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Portugal and is a regular guest conductor at top European and North American concert halls. This season, she will make her conducting debut with the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras, the New York Philharmonic and at the Hamburg State Opera as well as La Fenice in Venice. Here is information about Malkki’s Cleveland Orchestra guest-conducting gig next April.